Lesbians and Gay Men Over 60. Where are they? Part 5
Gay males over 60.
To attempt to acquaint anyone with all the issues around the aging gay male is impossible in a short paper, but we will try to touch on all salient points. The reader may use the bibliography to investigate further.
Before we can begin to deal with the situation of the aging gay male, we must first understand what it is to be gay! In Canada, there were never any laws against homosexuality per se, but there were (as there still are in some American states) laws against its sexual expression. This changed in 1969 when the Trudeau government passed on Omnibus Bill that changed the Criminal Code to say, in essence, “the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation”. Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the Yukon now have lows protecting gays/lesbians from discrimination based on sexual orientation. But, in other parts of the country, it is legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The present older generation of gays and lesbians had, for sheer survival, to live two lives: one public, the other private. The church said homosexuality was immoral; psychiatrists said it constituted a personality disorder. Gay men and lesbians started life with three strikes against them. So, they hid from society; met furtively in gay bars, which were often seedy, and hoped to meet someone. They had lovers of the opposite sex, because, if they were exposed as gay/lesbian, they might lose their career and friends; blackmail always lurked over their shoulder. These stratagems produced isolation and loneliness. Older gays do not use gay groups the way younger generations do. They are often still in the closet, afraid to “come out”. They cling to the importance of family approval. The closet is perceived as a place of safety, but in reality it can be a prison. In a couple where one partner dies, it is more difficult to find support simply because it is either very limited or non-existent.
“No on understands the relationship between two friends”.
However, the present older generation witnessed or experienced many events that forced them to begin the fight for change. In the 1920s there was a thriving gay liberation movement in Europe, particularly in Germany, where before the creation of the old Empire, being gay had been legal. Bismark brought in the infamous paragraph 175 that made homosexual acts illegal, but did not kill off the gay community. After the First World War, Europe was being renewed, and the gays were part of the change. But Hitler, after using the gays to win his election, then, attacked them with violence. Gays were exposed, put into concentration camps along with Jews, and killed. They wore the pink triangle, emblem of the lowest of the low. Hundreds of thousands perished in these camps. In North America, during the Second World War, as women began to realize they could enjoy a career and independence, so did gays being to experience a feeling of community amongst themselves. This feeling found its expression in the USA with the formation of a homosexual group called “One”. Just when Joseph McCarthy was exposing gays and driving them underground, One led a court challenge against the Post Office, which said that a gay newsletter was immoral and obscene, and therefore could not be sent through the mail. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Post Office. It was then that the real Gay Liberation Movement in North America began.
To attempt to acquaint anyone with all the issues around the aging gay male is impossible in a short paper, but we will try to touch on all salient points. The reader may use the bibliography to investigate further.
Before we can begin to deal with the situation of the aging gay male, we must first understand what it is to be gay! In Canada, there were never any laws against homosexuality per se, but there were (as there still are in some American states) laws against its sexual expression. This changed in 1969 when the Trudeau government passed on Omnibus Bill that changed the Criminal Code to say, in essence, “the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation”. Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the Yukon now have lows protecting gays/lesbians from discrimination based on sexual orientation. But, in other parts of the country, it is legal to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The present older generation of gays and lesbians had, for sheer survival, to live two lives: one public, the other private. The church said homosexuality was immoral; psychiatrists said it constituted a personality disorder. Gay men and lesbians started life with three strikes against them. So, they hid from society; met furtively in gay bars, which were often seedy, and hoped to meet someone. They had lovers of the opposite sex, because, if they were exposed as gay/lesbian, they might lose their career and friends; blackmail always lurked over their shoulder. These stratagems produced isolation and loneliness. Older gays do not use gay groups the way younger generations do. They are often still in the closet, afraid to “come out”. They cling to the importance of family approval. The closet is perceived as a place of safety, but in reality it can be a prison. In a couple where one partner dies, it is more difficult to find support simply because it is either very limited or non-existent.
“No on understands the relationship between two friends”.
However, the present older generation witnessed or experienced many events that forced them to begin the fight for change. In the 1920s there was a thriving gay liberation movement in Europe, particularly in Germany, where before the creation of the old Empire, being gay had been legal. Bismark brought in the infamous paragraph 175 that made homosexual acts illegal, but did not kill off the gay community. After the First World War, Europe was being renewed, and the gays were part of the change. But Hitler, after using the gays to win his election, then, attacked them with violence. Gays were exposed, put into concentration camps along with Jews, and killed. They wore the pink triangle, emblem of the lowest of the low. Hundreds of thousands perished in these camps. In North America, during the Second World War, as women began to realize they could enjoy a career and independence, so did gays being to experience a feeling of community amongst themselves. This feeling found its expression in the USA with the formation of a homosexual group called “One”. Just when Joseph McCarthy was exposing gays and driving them underground, One led a court challenge against the Post Office, which said that a gay newsletter was immoral and obscene, and therefore could not be sent through the mail. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Post Office. It was then that the real Gay Liberation Movement in North America began.
* to be continued *
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